Opinion Sur
This article addresses an important local intervention to solve situations of inequality and poverty: sustainable communities that integrate in the same initiative well-planned housing solutions with measures to create decent employment. What does this inititative involve? How to organize them? Who could lead the way? What is their meaning and which the implications of dedicating solutions of excellence to mobilize low-income sectors? Inequality and poverty must be addressed with efforts at different levels. At national and provincial levels with policies setting regulations and the funding of macroprojects; at mesoeconomic level (the area of productive networks and value chains) promoting the exercise of mesoeconomic responsibility by the productive apparatus with workers, suppliers, distributors and even clients, especially those leading productive chains; at local level by encouraging that municipalities together with social movements, civil society organizations, the scientific and technological community, opinion leaders, take concrete initiatives to fight poverty and inequality in their localities. There are many different players that should be mobilized to face a scourge generated by the form in which societies have been organized and which implications are not only ethical but also cast a shadow over social cohesion, political movements, democratic governance and the very functioning of the economic system; inequality and poverty are one of the main causes of the crisis affecting contemporary world .
This article focuses on an important intervention that may be undertaken at local level to solve situations of inequality and poverty: sustainable communities that integrate in the same initiative well-planned housing solutions with measures to generate decent employment.
Local prominence with national and provincial support
It is at local level where hardships and needs are expressed with all its virulence. Road blocks, land encroachments, massive demonstrations, people’s violence take up a lot of energy and cause a tremendous social instability. A basic claim of the poor and indigent is to have a place to live in with dignity and genuine income to enable them to rise above their adverse circumstances. This means housing in a safe environment with adequate physical infrastructure, social equipment and access to decent employment. The organization, implementation, management and cost of these solutions far exceed the capacity of any single player. The challenge is to combine initiative and local coordination with the allocation of resources from national and provincial governments, the private sector, scientific and technological community, civil society organizations and at the heart of the endeavor, the participation of poor and indigent families and the social movements that support them.
It is not only about a group of families finding a solution to their problems but rather that whole communities may do it. They could be existing communities living in areas which are not fit for residential use or families of different origin looking for a place to settle down but all of them, by free choice, deciding to settle in spaces that are well-located and programmed to be developed as sustainable communities. That is to say, communities of families living and working in urban planned spaces where several types of support, resources and values converge: their own culture and efforts, financial and management resources, knowledge of excellence, commercial and institutional contacts, social and environmental responsibility. The idea of a sustainable community represents a necessary referential utopia that serves as guidance for short and medium-term actions that, otherwise, might not develop or might do it at a high cost in terms of life quality and waste of valuable resources. At the same time, it is an initiative built by the population itself, no longer abandoned to its fate but with all the weight of the concerted action of the State, the private sector and civil society.
The leading role is local, whether leadership is held by the municipality, a social movement or some other local player committed to establishing sustainable communities. With that orientation and a firm management it is possible to bring in other efforts, but how can it be done?
Main components
(i) Access to land, well-located and fit for population settlements, is a key factor. There is both public land available that can be assigned at low or no cost at all, and private land that can be bought or expropriated at a fair price. It is possible to act on a case-by-case basis by purchasing developable land whenever there is an opportunity to establish a new sustainable community or it may be convenient to create a specific trust financed by provincial and national contributions that obtains the land needed to meet present and future demands.
(ii) Any piece of land intended for a sustainable community is delivered with its corresponding urban plan; no more settlements growing chaotically without order and planning, therefore affecting the life quality of population and generating high costs of operation and service supply. Those who develop sustainable community projects will be responsible for carrying out the urban planning of the land involved, including future extension areas; this planning must be made in consultation with the people that will dwell in the new settlement.
(iii) Housing solutions are approached as a process that evolves as a function of family and income growth. In all the cases, these are decent houses that meet all the corresponding standards to be considered as such. The process starts providing a basic housing unit with living-room, bathroom, kitchen and one or two bedrooms. This unit is part of a full housing solution intended to be gradually completed as regards equipment and additional constructions in accordance with the development of family needs and resources. The idea is to work with quality, low-cost solutions that have already been successfully developed in the country. To reduce the cost of the basic housing unit, labor contributions by the families, massive purchases of supplies and materials and appropriate building techniques will be used. The proposal envisages using credits at low interest rates as well as other facilities and subsidies that may be part of already existing public programs.
(iv)Physical infrastructure and social equipment of the housing project should be provided by the project developer and financed within the budget of public entities that may decide to participate in the new sustainable communities.
(iv) It is herein proposed that each sustainable community had a small productive ventures developer specializing in identifying opportunities so that, by using new business engineering small producers may articulate with strategic partners in medium-size ventures. These inclusive ventures will be able to operate in better conditions as regards scale, management, know-how, access to markets, funding and commercial and institutional contacts. For a characterization of inclusive ventures and the developers promoting the same, please refer to previous [Opinion Sur articles->www.opinionsur.org.ar].
Diversity of situations and solutions
Reality shows a huge range of situations that need to be tackled in accordance with the singularities of each case. It is not the same to make an intervention in highly populated metropolitan areas with relative scarcity of available lands, than in small and medium-size towns where spaces for urban expansion are more abundant, and even less in rural areas where a sustainable community may mean to establish a new village to act as a center for the provision of services and as a housing settlement for a population that was scattered before.
Perhaps the territorial planning of the country or the province recommends emphasizing a more balanced regional development that decreases or reverses the huge concentration of population and production in large metropolitan areas burdened by the high costs of agglomeration. Without excluding metropolitan areas, this would mean to prioritize actions in provinces and localities that have growth potential but require national support to materialize it. In this sense, sustainable communities may complement other efforts oriented towards integrating the national territory in a more rational way, helping to retain local population and reorienting migrations towards new regional development poles.
Meaning and implications of sustainable communities
A sustainable community program as the one proposed herein implies changing the traditional attitude of ignoring or assigning the worst solutions to poor and indigent sectors. The idea is to mobilize the talent and social energy potential which is nested in large majorities that today is absurdly wasted. The effort of those wishing to be part of new sustainable communities is combined with the support of several public sector and the civil society players. It is an initiative that integrates decent housing solutions with efforts to develop new and promissory ventures generating income that will enable to attend to family needs and to assume gradual payment of the housing solution. It is intended to ensure life quality to sectors that have been marginalized from the benefits of development, now integrated into sustainable communities that value their cultural identity and act with social and environmental responsibility.
The reader may draw his or her own conclusions regarding the political, social, environmental and economic impact of these new sustainable communities. The restrictions faced are not reduced to the availability of financial resources; let’s say it clearly, there are financial resources even though it is evident that up to now they have not been channeled to this type of venture. The challenge is to understand that financing of sustainable communities that integrate and mobilize poor and indigent sectors is not consumption expenditure but a highly profitable investment from a social, political, environmental and also economic standpoint given its huge multiplying effect.
Allocating financial and management resources to establish sustainable communities will successfully pass any type of test. The question is if we have determination to proceed; if we are capable of overcoming prejudices and working in effective forms to mobilize poor and indigent sectors socially and productively; if we avoid naiveties and are able to obtain the political support of politicians, rulers and administrators; if in the first place, social movements will be willing to discuss and adjust these initiative in order to make them their own and to include it in their claims
It is not easy to move from complaining into taking action; nor is it easy to overcome the many doubts and questions raised by any new initiative. It is true that the challenges are significant and that a new and different generation of tensions will rise in each one of the new sustainable communities as people will carry on their backs, let’s not forget, the best and the worst of each of us. Conflicts and disagreements will have to be addressed as in any other social fabric even though, in this case, in a more promising and facilitating context. That is what it is all about; opening a new channel to mobilize energies, hopes and aspirations of huge segments of our population that have been unfairly punished; bringing in the talent and energy they have to try to achieve a better life and transforming us all in the attempt.
